Alien Weaponry – Gig Review 14th March @ Enigma Bar, Adelaide SA

You may have just started hearing about Alien Weaponry. They’re a New Zealand thrash metal band with strong roots to their Maori heritage, and they’re fucking awesome. They’ve toured the US and Europe, played the worlds biggest metal festival (Waken in Germany) and numerous others, and two out of the three band members aren’t even of legal drinking age yet. Fresh off the stage at Download Festival (our coverage here) they’re dashing around the country playing gigs before they jet off on yet another US and European tour.

The teenage trio hit up Enigma Bar in Adelaide on a Thursday night with Copia and Hidden Intent for their Tumatauenga Australian Tour and absolutely tore it up.

Adelaide locals Hidden Intent were the first to hit the stage and despite some technical difficulties they powered through. The fellas warmed up the deeper they got into the set and the tunes got heavier and heavier. Power stances were very common, as was long locks of hair – all the better to windmill with. They bantered with the fans and you could tell they were well known to the Adelaide crowd. They set such a good tone for the night that one man literally walked in the door and immediately let his hair down.

Copia are a band from Melbourne and they brought a bit of finesse with them. They played with a bit more variety in their set and they really built the crowd. Tight breakdowns, clean/rough vocals and they just took up the entire stage. It’s not a big one at Enigma Bar but they moved around and made it seem spacious. This is an impressive band, not only do they know how to write a technical song but they know how to best deliver it to the crowd as well.

And then we had Alien Weaponry. The already filled room became packed as the boys set up their gear on stage; men untangled their hair in preparation for more head banging and nodded to their mates that they’d ‘heard these fellas are good’. Alien Weaponry started out strong with a nod to their culture, drummer Henry de Jong performing a spine-tingling short rendition of the Haka with a crowd member, perhaps from Maori descent, climbing onto the stage to sing it with him. What a way to start.

They were brutal, with chugging riffs and breakdowns that had the crowd moving in time almost without even thinking about it. Vocalist/guitarist Lewis de Jong was a commanding presence, delivering lyrics with an aggression that the crowd lapped up. He and bassist Ethan Trembath swapped mics and both worked the whole room, Trembath clearly loving performing as he worked the crowd and held up his horns.

‘Urutaa’, ‘Kai Tangata’ and ‘Raupatu’ were huge hits and the mosh pit went crazy. The stage is upstairs in Enigma Bar and you know you’re at a good gig when the floor bounces. Well, let me tell you that the floor bounced the entire time Alien Weaponry had the stage. These fellas play like they’re 10 years older than they are, they’ve racked up a tonne of experience and grown into the scene like they were born into it. Their songs are catchy and there was never a dull moment in their set.

From the very first song, it was instantaneous, these musicians had it. It was that spark, you know that feeling you get when you’re witnessing something important? I can guarantee you, everyone who has seen this band live would’ve had that inkling. This band is going to take over the world someday.